Verizon DSL vs Comcast Cable

[cdevers at pobox.com (Chris Devers)]

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Scott Ehrlich wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 gbburkhardt at aaahawk.com wrote:
> 
> > After living in the boonies with a dialup connection after
> > all these years, I finally
> > can get a higher speed Internet connection.
> >
> > So what's the latest scuttlebutt?  Should I get Verizon DSL
> > for $35/month, 320 kbps,
> > or Comcast cable, $42/month, 4 mbps down/384 kbps up?
> >
> > Is one more Linux friendly than the other, or do the both
> > hide behind Microsoft?
> 
> If I an not mistaken, Verizon's DSL uses PPPoE (PPP Over Ethernet) which
> is really not a "full-time" connection and requires additional software to
> work correctly.

Maybe. 

I have Verizon DSL at home, and have had no problem keeping my Mac online
for weeks at a time. I have in the past been able to get a SuSE laptop on
as well, and my wife gets online with her WinXP laptop. Verizon supplies
you with connection software that you "have" to use, but the only system
that I've been unable to connect out of the box was MacOS9, which isn't a
big deal anymore. 

As you say, all connections use PPPoE to connect; this is built-in & easy
on the Mac & Windows, and wasn't hard to figure out via some KDE widget
with SuSE. 

I'm not sure why PPPoE bothers people so much; I've never really had a
problem with using it, or losing a connection, etc. 

On the other hand, I really like that as a DSL subscriber I'm not on the
same subnet as all of my neighbors. Then again, I'm missing out on being
able to idly browse all my neighbors Windows shares, but oh well...

As a Verizon customer of two or three years now, I've had no complaints.



-- 
Chris Devers